If you blindly came across a Maine Coon, chances are you’d need to do a double-take to make sure you weren’t about run right into some sort of bobcat. The Maine Coon is the largest breed of domesticated cat — or at least they appear the largest under several inches of thick fluff. Their facial features are round but pronounced. Wide cheek bones and a puffy muzzle sit perfectly below two big, oval eyes. Their ears, tall and impressive, are adorned with long tufts of fur, giving them a distinguished appearance; it’s almost as if a feline wizard has ambled out of a fairytale.
Perhaps they are from a fairytale, as there are certainly many fictitious theories about how the Maine Coon came about. One suggests the Maine Coon got its impressive, bushy tail by mating with raccoons. In a more plausible scenario, many believe Vikings bred longhaired cats that made their way stateside about a thousand years before European colonizers arrived.
